Strategic thinking

What
do the terms "Strategic" and "Strategic Thinking" mean?:

The
word "strategic" is used too much these days. It
has become a differentiator for status and careers, so
now people stick it in as an adjective in front of most
every noun, sort of a way of claiming what is strategic,
whether or not they actually have it. There
is strategic planning, strategic management, strategic
issues, strategic positions, strategic actions, strategic
alliances, and strategic business partners.

Almost
all planning now seems to be called strategic planning,
even though very little of it is. There
are misguided, but popular views that say that strategic
planning is long term and futuristic (but it is just as
immediate as it is long term); that it is big picture (but
it can also be very focused); that it is done at the top
of the organization (but it is hopefully being done throughout
the organization, top to bottom); that it is linear, analytical,
oriented to control, consistency, order, and predictability
(but it is also flexible and imaginative(*) In Mind
of the Strategist, Kenichi Ohmae says: "Strategy
is analysis plus intellectual elasticity so that advantageous
responses can be made to changing situations."

I
believe that "strategy" has to do with intentionally
using my assets (like skill or special resources)
and neutralizing my vulnerabilities to take advantage
of a presented opportunity (often a surprise) to
position myself to accomplish a goal (vision) or
meet a challenge. "Strategic
thinking" is the thought that is put into using assets,
neutralizing vulnerabilities, taking advantage of opportunity,
and positioning oneself to succeed. "Strategic
thinking facilitation" is the role of helping someone
or a group or and entire organization or concurrently
several organization think through a strategic agenda. "Strategic
planning" is when we put the thoughts and decision regarding
strategy into a planning format, so that there is an
alignment of understanding among the several people who
have to work together to execute the strategy(ies). It
is most useful to involve many people at one time in
planning, since we want buy-in to the plan.

Examples
of Strategic Thinking and Decisions:

As
a kid I worked for an entrepreneur in my home town. I
noticed that he didn't work very hard, that he enjoyed
himself a lot, and that he made a lot of money. He
lay on the couch thinking. The
he would occasionally take action, usually through other
people, like me.I
only learned much later that he was a strategic thinker.

A
baseball pitcher saves his strikeout pitch (maybe a sinking
fastball on the corner of the plate) until he needs a
strikeout. The
judgment as to when to use it is strategic.

You
have a tough meeting tomorrow. You
lie in bed thinking about it. You
decide to cut the agenda in half so that there is more
time to help participants process the new proposal that
you know will be controversial. Your thinking has been
strategic.

When
the National Cancer Institute chose to focus its research
efforts on neutralizing the enzyme that spreads cancer
rather than on curing cancer, it was shifting its strategic
target in order to combat this dreadful disease.

When
the Human Resources Department decides to identify an
account manager for each major internal customer, it
has thought through its vulnerabilities of not really
tailoring its services to the unique needs of each department
and has determined its strategic positioning.

When
a software development firm chooses to buck the tide
and not offer products and services for the Microsoft
environment but provide an alternative to MS in the market
place, it is making a courageous (we don't know if it
will be successful) strategic decision.

When
a company shifts its focus from an operational excellence
value discipline to a customer intimacy value discipline,
it has been doing strategic thinking (hopefully) about
its relative strengths, the changing opportunities
in the market place, and its vulnerable situation having
to depend upon stable projections of commodity-type
margins in a very unstable business environment.

The
biblical story of David and Goliath.the underdogs and
those less talented must be strategic thinkers.

When
Melissa makes herself available to lead the company's
new product venture and leave her safe job that she has
mastered, Melissa has thought through benefits and risks
and has determined that the move is worth the risk if
she is to position herself for a later general manager
role.

Jack
Welch of G.E. quotes Helmuth Von Moltke, Military Advisor
to the Ottoman Court:"Strategy
is not a lengthy action plan but rather the evolution
of a central idea through continually changing circumstances."Each
business, each project, each movement, each career,
each national initiative has a central idea.although
it is not often consciously known or guided through
an organic, evolutionary process.

Miyamoto
Musashi in The Book of Five Rings (which finally convinced
me that strategy was not an adjective to planning) tells
a wonderful story about how he survived as a sword fighter
for many years.Lessons
abound, such as my favorite: "Move in when the opponent's
mind stops."In
his case strategy was instantaneous with presented opportunities.
At most he might quietly reflect on his challenge while
riding in the hand-oared boat crossing the lake to the
shore where the contest would be held.He
thought about his opponent, about his own strengths and
vulnerabilities, about the setting and other circumstances
of the contest. Then
he determined his approach to the challenge, and when
he arrived on the far shore, he executed that approach.and
the opponent.

Key
to Facilitating Strategic Thought:

A
primary mode for facilitating strategic thinking is that
of working one-on-one with an individual, not just about
that individual's role in leading an organization's strategic
decision making.It
also relates to an individual's own decision making about
self, for example, regarding career decisions. An
individual needs to think strategically about how to use
personal skills in order to neutralize vulnerabilities
and take advantage of opportunities in order to achieve
something desired.The
agenda of strategic questions is pretty much the same for
an individual and for a company, even though the individual
has a smaller scope and less complexity.

Facilitation
of strategic thought happens at the level of one-on-one
coaching, small group meetings, the joining of two small
groups (as in the case of building strategic alliances,
for example), or in the venue of a large gathering of
people, which is becoming increasingly popular.Good
coaching skills, good group process techniques (including
in the large conference setting), and good planning tools
and processes go a long way in each case. But
fundamental to the facilitator's success in any of these
settings is knowing the content of strategic thinking,
not just the process.I
would advise against trusting a facilitator of strategic
thinking who him or herself is not very strategic.

When
you are asked to provide facilitation help and you determine
it is for strategic thinking (it is hardly ever asked for
directly), how will you go about trying to be helpful?

Models
are useful, if one fits the situation you are entering.
But they hardly ever fit directly without significant modification.Working
at the coaching level, for exam0ple, there are few models
for working through a strategic thinking process.So
the starting point ought to be:What
are the key strategic questions for this client (person
or system) at
this point in his, her, their, or its development?

This
is where knowing the content of strategic thinking comes
into play. What
are possible areas of strategic questions for any group,
organization, or individual? The
strategic thinking guide leads a tour of one or more of
several arenas (I sometimes refer to them as caves and
cave exploring):

What
will we choose to do? Should
we make a shift in our scope of services or products?
Why? In what ways are our services strong?Vulnerable? What
are the opportunities for us regarding the products we
offer? And
on an individual level, what kind of work do I really
want to do? What
kind of service or product do I want to provide?
For
whom?Should
we make a shift in market definition, positioning? Are
there emerging client needs to which we should respond?
Are there new opportunities for us to serve the client?New
clients? In
comparison with the competition, what are our advantages
and disadvantages regarding our market segments? For
whom do I really want to do work? How? What
are / should be our core capabilities? In
research and development? In
relating to the client?In
productizing? In
production or operations?In
marketing, sales, and distribution? Should
we invest in developing another area of capability? Are
we effectively leveraging our areas of core capability?
Where are we strong, and where are we vulnerable regarding
our current / future core capabilities? What
are my strongest capabilities? How
can I best use them to my career advantage?In
what areas do I have the greatest need for learning?
For what results?How
big do we want to get, how fast? What
kind of return on investment do we want? How
do we compare with others in this area? Should
we adjust our expected results? How
much do I want to be paid for what I do?
What
critical issues must be addressed and resolved before
we can succeed with our strategies? What
are the more significant barriers for me to overcome
if I am to succeed with my plans? What
factors exist that are likely impactful enough on my
achieving my goal, that if I could modify them, leverage
them, I would significantly improve my chances of success
with the goal?

Then
which of the above areas of questioning, when compared
with each of the other areas, is most important to the
overall decision making for this organization or for this
person? In
which are we most certain about what our answers would
be? This area
then becomes the drive force (#) or foundation of our thinking,
the central idea that evolves through continually changing
circumstances, and we build on this driving force platform
with the answers in the other areas of questioning. For
example, if the market we serve and its emerging needs
become most important to us and are also the areas about
which we know the most, then answers relating to the market
serve as a platform and guide to answering the other questions.The
services or products we provide, the way we provide them,
support them, sell them, the pace with which we grow, all
of this builds on the driving force platform. The
result of answering the battery of questions is the construction
of a strategic framework, which will then enable us to
make daily resource decisions and execute with some sense
and coherence, again at any level, individually, as a work
tem, or organizationally.(#)
In The Discipline
of Market Leaders, Treacy and Wiersema refer to this
same phenomenon as the value discipline of the organization.

Some
Additional Facilitation Hints:

As
a facilitator of strategic thinking, it is imperative
to help individuals involved in the process to improve
in their own strategic thinking abilities.One
way to accomplish this one-on-one is to help the individual
focus on questions like: What
does that mean to you? What
are the implications of doing that? What
was the core of the message that you heard? Cutting
through all the information, what is of central importance?
If you had to put all you money on one horse, which would
it be? Why? What
intuitively would seem to be the smart thing to do? Why?
What is the worst thing that could happen?How
does that decision relate to the other systems here?
What would you anticipate the consequences to be? For
acting? For
not acting?Whose
help do you need? How
do you best influence him?What
does the competitor think of you? What
is the competitor planning to do? Where
is the customer on all of this? Are
you sure that you know? What
are the probabilites (see Thinking
Strategically, Dixit and Nalebuff)?What
could you do to change the rules?What
really has worked for you over time? Why? What
advantage do you have? How
are you at a disadvantage? What
is a possibility for you to create an equal playing field?
If you could climb out of this pattern, what things might
you see? What
would be an analogy to what you are now faced with?

When
working with a work team, a department, or a function,
that is not a strategic unit of the organization, per se,
what can you do as a facilitator to provoke better strategic
thinking?Ask
the group to reflect on:Fundamentally,
what is the business (or mission, if not a business) that
you are in?How
does it work when successful?What
has to happen for it to work?Now?In
the future?What
does the company's or total organization's strategic plan
say about you, about what is expected of you?(It
won't say it directly of course.So
how does it say it indirectly?)What
are the implications from the broader plan for you and
your targets and priorities?What
are the givens or assumptions with which you have to work?What
is unacceptable in what you have been given?Conditions
in which you cannot succeed?And
which must change, if you are to succeed?How
can you influence the content of the broader strategic
plan, the decision making above you?What
risk are you willing to take, either by remaining quiet
or by speaking up?What
advantages or strengths do you have at your disposal to
leverage with the broader organization or within other
arenas of the total organization?Who
are your primary customers?What
do you know about them and their real needs?How
might you manage your relationship with them better?Which
of your services or products do they respect the most?How
can you leverage that?What
are or must you develop as your core capabilities?Rather
than a whole laundry list of tasks, what are the critical
issues that must be addressed if you are to succeed?

When
you are facilitating the strategic thinking of the entire
organization, whether you are working with the top management
group, a diagonal slice of the organization across levels
and units, or virtually the entire organization (If the
group is large, a small steering group is essential to
serve as a strategic thinking partner in iterations with
the larger group; see Robert Jacobs' Real
Time Strategic Change),take
seriously the challenge of pushing the client to pay
attention to what is outside of itself:the
market place, the political and regulatory environment,
the business environment, technology, the competition
(which companies seem to train themselves to dismiss,
demean, or ignore), and the real needs of the customers.not
only to identify these external factors, but to strategize
on the basis of them.What
should you do about the competition encroaching on your
product territory?What
are some advantages that you have that can serve you
to counter the encroachment?

Facilitation
of strategic thinking is more than helping a client group
do envisioning of the preferred future or helping them
write mission or values statements or leading them in
future search conference, large group processes.It
is helping the client, as a system and as individuals,
to think through the strategic agenda effectively.I
believe that the strategic thinking process boils down
to seeing, reconfiguring, and targeting.Seeing
includes both understanding the reality of the current
situation, the givens, without denial, and anticipating
the future, the benefits and consequences, and the intuition
for where trends are likely to go.Reconfiguring
is being able to intellectually rearrange what you see
into patterns that don't exist yet, new paradigms, if
you will (hardly linear thinking!).Targeting
is deciding where to focus, where to invest, where to
prioritize, where to make changes or take action to optimize
results from efforts expended (there's little worse than
doing the wrong thing better and better).Process-wise
strategic thinking embraces all three:seeing
(both understanding and anticipating), reconfiguring,
and targeting.The
facilitator's opportunity is to teach and guide the seeing,
reconfiguring, and focusing.And
compared to other processes, such as continuous improvement
for example, the facilitator of strategic thinking is
leading people in preparation to go into battle rather
than to go on a diet.

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